Who is this that darkens counsel…? is a question directed to Job, and not to Elihu as some have argued. The question is rhetorical. It should be recalled that each of the three friends begins his speech in chapters 4, 8, and 11 with rhetorical questions. It is clearer to address a person in the second person, and so Good News Translation and others change to “Who are you….” Darkens counsel is literally “obscuring plans.” Counsel translates a word meaning “plan, purpose, design.” By accusing God of being unjust, Job is said to be “obscuring, doubting, clouding” the “purposes, wisdom” of God. Good News Translation renders this phrase as “question my wisdom.” This line may also be rendered, for example, as “Who do you think you are to doubt my plans?” or “What right have you to question what I have decided to do?”

By words without knowledge describes the way in which Job “doubts, questions, obscures” God’s wisdom or design for creation. In 35.16 Elihu accused Job in a similar manner. It is by the use of ignorant talk that Job does this: “You do this by speaking ignorantly” or “You talk but don’t know what you are saying.” Verse 2 may be expressed “Who are you to doubt my plans with your ignorant talk?” This verse may require shifting line b to line a and translating “Who are you who talks ignorantly and rejects what I plan to do?” If the rhetorical question form cannot be used in the sense of “What right have you,” it may be necessary to say, for example, “Who gave you the authority?” or “Did someone give you the power?”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .